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As University of Maine administrators enthusiastically pursue building an addition to the steam plant that would allow the university to generate their own electricity and heat, engineering faculty and students along with one very determined member of the community are doing whatever they can to stop them.
On March 14, the board of trustees voted unanimously to create an ad hoc committee to review the concept of cogeneration, the producing of electricity and heat at the same time by using the steam generated from providing electricity to generate heat. The administration is requesting $9 million to build the facility and could, according to Joe Carr, UMaine interim director of public affairs, reap vast economic profit. Carr said conservative estimates for the amount of net profit the university could make over a 15-year period range from $6 to $17 million, depending on the size of the engine purchased.
“It’s important, as a public facility, that we look at any way we can to save costs,” Carr said. “I think it’s really good news. The potential is outstanding.”
Carr also said the turbine would be good for the environment because they would be burning mostly natural gas with possibly some oil.
Janet Waldron, vice president of administration and finance, said the university would make money from selling the excess electricity produced by the large turbine to the Bangor Hydro power grid. The profits from selling electricity and the money the university would save through cogeneration could mean money saved for students as well, since the university could reduce a possible future tuition increase by two percent, Waldron said.
“All the information we have would point to this as being an excellent option for the campus,” Waldron said.
Much of the university’s engineering department students and faculty, however, believe the building of the power plant would be a huge mistake, especially if the administration decides to purchase the used nine-megawatt turbine engine from Georgia Pacific, which has given the university priority on it before they open it up further into the market, said Jesse Packard, a UMaine mechanical engineering student. Packard said the university would most likely lose money with this plan because the turbine is too large and the grid is so competitive that they would not be able to sell the extra electricity, and what they did sell wouldn’t be at a high price.
Energy expert and former mechanical engineering professor Dick Hill has also expressed his concern for the efficiency of the turbine. He said the university is not fit for cogeneration because they need much more heat than they do electricity. The turbine would produce too much electricity and not enough steam for heat, Hill said. In order to produce more heat with the turbine, they’d have to burn #2 oil, which is expensive and not environmentally friendly.
Jim Lebreque, an outside businessman who designs and builds process control systems and who has had a long-term relationship with the UMaine’s engineering department, said there are several reasons why the university would be interested in purchasing the oversized turbine.
One reason could be that they would rather throw a lot of money at a big project that would be easy to sell to the public than to spend money on a bunch of less expensive but numerous updates on the current infrastructure to make the campus more energy efficient, Lebreque said. He said that the recent Barrows Hall addition was so poorly built that it costs $1,000 per day for electricity and increased total campus use of electricity by ten percent. Also, the university runs air conditioning in buildings during winter months and heats the sky boxes at Alfond Stadium during the winter for almost $8,000 a month just so coaches can bring potential players there to help in recruitment, Lebreque said.
“The incompetence of the facilities engineering department has accumulated so many long-term energy problems that I believe they feel that a cogeneration project can be a fix-all to cover all their past mistakes,” Lebreque said.
Lebreque is investigating is the utility lawyer, the university hired to consult them, Tony Buxton in choosing a company which could research cogeneration possibilities and find a suitable turbine. Buxton referred the university to Comprehensive Energy Services, a company Lebreque said Buxton actually owns a portion of.
Lebreque has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain scores of records, bills and other documents that would settle many disputes, including whether the figures the Waldron has released to the press concerning the financial and environmental benefits cogeneration would provide were indeed accurate or not. Lebreque said he believes these figures are false and that the research required to obtain actual figures didn’t begin until two weeks after the numbers were released to the press.
In his FOI, Lebreque is also requesting documents which would either prove or disprove that the university paid $40,000 out of the fund for the student recreation center to Cianbro a year ago. At the time, the university was looking into a different cogeneration plan which Lebreque was very actively against. The university paid Cianbro to gather information which would support the plan and hopefully keep him quiet, Lebreque said. He obtained a copy of the presentation package Cianbro produced for the money and said he has not found one engineering professor who thinks the presentation and information is in any way useful, factual or productive. The university eventually decided not to pursue the Cianbro plan. Leqbreque said an employee of the department of administration and finance told him the money came out of the student recreation fund, which is made up of students’ tuition money.
As to a timeline for the university to provide the information, the Maine Freedom of Information Act states that if a governmental agency refuses to relinquish certain information, the individual that requested the information has five days from the date of refusal to appeal to a court.
“Until somebody starts asking some hard questions and delves into the public record, they’ll throw $9 million at a cogeneration system that’ll be very costly for the university,” Lebreque said.
Lebreque said that if the university refuses to disclose necessary information, then he will take the issue to court and will participate in a rally in front of the chancellor’s house.
“People who have something to hide unfortunately have unlimited legal funds supported by the tax payers and they will use them to the greatest extent possible,” Lebreque said. “They truly have something to hide, and they’re doing a damn good job of hiding it.”
Lebreque has been working closely with engineering students Packard, Chris Leech and Ryan Stanley in researching the proposal themselves and trying to figure out what it would really mean for the university. Packard said doing so has been difficult, though, since the administration had refused to provide them with the information they would need to accurately determine figures. The administration has also not consulted the engineering department at all for assistance in helping with their energy problem, but has instead hired out-of-state firms to aid them, even though the students and faculty are highly capable and more than willing to provide their assistance, Packard said.
“This is a big slap in the face to the engineering department,” said Stanley.
